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MARIJUANA BILL: COOPERATION CAN HAPPEN

Pennsylvania lawmakers and Gov.  Tom Wolf have helped to ease some medical patients' suffering by legalizing the use of prescribed medical marijuana.  Now, their task is to see if the same rare bipartisan cooperation that led to the new law can ease the commonwealth's pain from polarized, unproductive governance.

The bill, which also promotes further research into the medicinal value of marijuana, is a healthy departure from the political paralysis that has produced such debacles as the longest budget impasse in Pennsylvania history.

Ultimately, the bill became law because the governor and enough lawmakers focused on Pennsylvanians' needs rather than on politics alone.

The same approach by Wolf and the Legislature, rather than digging in their heels on ideological grounds, might produce similar results on other important but stalled initiatives.